Due to the recent boom in the market for Li-ion batteries, the demand for carbonate ester, which is a key material in electrolyte solvents, has experienced significant growth as well. Seeing opportunities, many Chinese chemical companies such as Beiyuan Group have entered the market for the upstream materials used in electrolytes.
On August 23, Beiyuan Group announced that it will be setting up a project for manufacturing carbonate ester and electrolyte. According to the company, the carbonate ester plus electrolyte project will use the hydrogen chloride that will be produced from its other project for manufacturing glycine. The glycine project, which is still in development, will use monochloroacetic acid and create hydrogen chloride as a byproduct during the production process. Since the glycine project will have a production capacity of 120,000 tons per year, setting up a carbonate ester plus electrolyte project will significant increase the company’s efficiency with respect to resource utilization.
The carbonate ester plus electrolyte project will manufacture the following products: vinyl acetate (20,000 tons per year), dimethyl carbonate (80,000 tons per year), ethyl methyl carbonate (101,800 tons per year), and diethyl carbonate (13,900 tons per year). The project will be located in Shemu, a county-level city in China’s Shaanxi Province. The construction period will last 24 months, and the total investment is estimated to reach RMB 1.878 billion. Beiyuan Group has filed the project application with the city’s development and reform agency and technology agency.
Beiyuan Group said the carbonate ester plus electrolyte project will make tangible contributions in terms of vertical integration in the supply chain, optimization of manufacturing processes, and improvement in product quality. The new project will also enable the company to become much more competitive through consolidation of resources and product mix adjustment. All in all, the new project fits into the company’s long-term growth strategy.
Established in 2003, Beiyuan Group manufactures and sells industrial chemicals and upstream materials. Its main offerings are polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and sodium hydroxide. The application range of its products is wide, encompassing piping materials, smelting, papermaking, organic chemical materials, inorganic chemical materials, and petrochemicals.
Beiyuan Group is currently pursuing vertical integration and is working on a circular process that combines PVC and industrial slag into a cement material. The process will integrate other processes and technologies related to coal, electricity, calcium carbide, chloralkali process, ion exchange membrane process for sodium hydroxide, etc. The company intends to make significant contributions to the reduction of industrial wastes and energy consumption. Furthermore, the process could be adopted to transform the manufacturing of sodium hydroxide. The conventional manufacturing process for this material entails high energy consumption and creates a lot of pollution.
The glycine project that Beiyuan Group is currently setting up will be manufacturing products that have a higher added value and a wider application scope compared with the more basic chemicals and materials such as PVC and sodium hydroxide. The glycine project, which will have a production capacity of 120,000 tons per year, will also strengthen the company’s position in the supply chain for products based on the chloralkali process. These benefits, in turn, will increase the company’s revenue.
Beiyuan Group currently possesses 1.1 million tons per year of production capacity for PVC, 800,000 tons per year of production capacity for sodium hydroxide (manufactured using the ion membrane exchange process), 500,000 tons per year of production capacity for calcium carbide, and 2.2 million tons per year of production capacity for a cement material that includes industrial slag as its ingredient. The company also operating several power generation units (i.e., four 125MW and two 25MW).
In terms of financial performance, Beiyuan Group’s revenue for the first half of 2022 came to RMB 6.592 billion, showing a YoY increase of 10.28. Its net profit (attributable to the parent company) for the same period came to RMB 1.197 billion, showing a YoY increase of 2.49%. Both the revenue and net profit results are record high.
This article is a translation of a Chinese article posted by TrendForce. It contains information that is either sourced from other news outlets or accessible in the public domain. Some Chinese names are transcribed into English using Hanyu Pinyin.